Londonderry coach found not guilty in girl's sex assault

BRENTWOOD — A Londonderry youth football coach was cleared by a jury of all charges that he sexually assaulted an 11-year-old girl who slept over at his home in 2012.

Jurors found Timothy Longua, 42, not guilty of three counts of felonious sexual assault and single counts of aggravated felonious sexual assault and attempted aggravated felonious sexual assault.

“Tim and his family are relieved that this is behind them,” Longua’s lawyer Charles Keefe said following the verdict. The verdict came Friday afternoon after three and a half hours in Rockingham County Superior Court.

Longua took the stand in his own defense. He was accused of touching the girl when she stayed at the home between May and December 2012. “The strongest evidence in addition to Tim’s testimony was the fact that the complaining witness got caught in a vast amount of inconsistencies,” Keefe said on Friday.

Longua was arrested by Londonderry police last March. At the time, he was serving as an assistant football coach for the Londonderry Wildcats during the 2012 season.

He still faces a second trial involving allegations that he sexually assaulted a 12-year-old girl who also stayed over at his home.

The defense argued that the girl repeatedly changed her story about the alleged assaults while she recounted the incident to her counselor, child advocacy workers and the police.

Keefe also criticized during the trial how a Londonderry police detective pressured Longua during a voluntary interview at the police department, then became selective in how his client’s statements were used in an affidavit seeking his arrest.

“He said he didn’t do it more than 10 times,” Keefe said. “That’s not fair. That’s not complete. That’s not accurate.”

Assistant County Attorney Jennifer Haggar argued that the girl had no reason to fabricate being sexually assaulted by Longua.

Haggar argued that the girl’s recollection about the sexual assaults was largely consistent while she endured three and a half hours of questioning by the defense about minute details.

She also asked jurors to compare Longua’s police interview with his testimony, noting it was filled with exclamations.